AX 2007

July 2, 2007: Pictures from day 1 to day 3, more con report and stuff to come tomorrow after I get back from the last day of the con. I am
currently way to fing tired to write anything conprehensible.... More to come.

Ok, attended the final day of the event, nothing too significant happened. I got to meet another fellow model builder from NorCal. But here's
the con report. In general I had fun, but was fairly busy walking back and forth between the Art Show and the main exhibit building for the workshops.
I didn't get to spend much time in the exhibit hall, guess that's a good thing since it sorta help save on some money.

The highlight of this year is meeting with more and more new people. One person I met, currently lives in Oakland, however he grew up in my home
town and went to the same high school as I, albeit graduating several years before I did. I got to meet the man behind HobbyFan, hopefully next year
I'll get a chance to talk to him more since he says he's planning on exhibiting next year.

I also got to meet another pla/resin figure modeler. Clementine pointed
out the Haruhi kit that was displayed in a booth at the exhibit hall.
I was going to check it out yesterday, but I was short on time since I
needed to run off to judge the model competition. When I went there today,
I was talking to Clementine about the kit in Cantonese and the builder
overheard and answered the issue I was pointing out. We chatted for a
little bit and I learned how much of a model builder he was; so I trekked
back to my car and grabbed some of my display kits I had in the model
contest and brought it back to his booth to show him some of my work.
Then we just ended up talking for a good hour or two while he was still
busily selling and dealing with customers. Good guy, and good shop:
www.toyslogic.com

The Model Contest:

This year I decided to take some steps to help improve some of
the areas where the model contest has been failing upon in the past couple of
years. There really was a need for a model builder's perspective on things,
so I contacted the Art Show staff and just started whining, complaining, and
throwing suggestions - an internet tantrum if you will. I got a webpage that
describes the model contest and judging criteria put up, the Art Show manager
removed the need for model contest entrants to reserve table space just for
entering a model. Honestly, it seems rather unfair to have a modeler who brings
in 1 model kit to need half of a 6 ft table. The judging was lead by me, for
which I selected a group of fellow modelers, one whom is the vice presidnet
of my local IPMS club and a regular judge at IPMS contests. Seeing the number
of entrants, I feel satisfied to say that the model contest showed some potential.
Here are the entries:

There were a total of 31 entries from 12 or so entrants. One of the biggest
complaints that I felt from the model competition was the poor choice in judges.
In previous years, the judging was left up to the model contest sponsor, guests
of honor, or like last year, taking pictures of the entries and emailing them
to the sponsor who no longer attends AX.... With the permission of the sponsor
(HLJ) the Art Show was allowed to elect a local judge for the contest. Hopefully
this will pave the way for establishing a permenant judge position where the
judge/judges panels are experience model builders. From all the entries, the
following picture is the names and titles of the kits that won:

Ramen eating contest. It just fun to watch people attempt to quickly
finish eat scalding hot cup of noodle as fast as they could, including the soup.

Some friends of mine came down from Sacramento and this was their
first AX. Not sure if they'd be up for coming back, but I think they had fun.

I was able to hold the gunpla and resin figure model building
seminars as I did last year. This year I opted for some earlier start times
so as to not conflict with the bigger events at AX. Unfortunately, it seemed
that the timing was just a little too early. There was just too many things
that were going on during the early part of the day so my attendance was considerably
smaller than it was last year. I still had a decent draw, and several repeat
attendees from last year. I will have to add much more material to my current
model presentation, dioramas and such would be a great addition to the workshop.
For next year, I've been thinking about submitting a request to hold the workshop
later in the afternoon/early evening around 5 or 6 and hold a two hour panel.
I think the 5-7 time frame would be perfect, folks have gotten a chance to wander
around the exhibit hall, and there's bit of a lull between the closing of the
exhibit hall and the evening events such as Masquarade and AMV's. This is a
picture my girlfriend took of me while in the midst of pointing and looking
like a general fool attempting to teach a class on building gunpla.

This year was my first foray into AX's Art Show silent auction.
I've auctioned items off at Otakon and found some decent success, so I decided
to try AX's. When bidding started, I ended up getting one bid. On the third
day, while in the midsts of judging, the Art Show staff came over and grabbed
me because they had some interesting news. Apparently the folks that run the
AMVs do not buy the prizes for the AMV awards until they have finished judging
the AMVs. They then go and find prizes that fit the subject matter of the particular
AMV that won. So this year, they had a grand prize award go to an AMV that focused
on The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya; so they came by the Art Show and placed
the final bid on the Haruhi kit that I put into the auction. Here are some pictures
of the AMV director putting Haruhi together in preparation for the awards presentation
and a picture of Haruhi with the AMV award. Hooray for Haruhi I guess.

Cosplay and random photographs

Lots and lots of Haruhi's and SOS Dan folks running around.
I tried to get a little autography from the SOS Voice Actresses... I wanted
them to sign my Haruhi Guitar. But there was a nice little fiasco of sorts.
Taking everything with a grain of salt, I wasn't too annoyed, only slighly perturbed.
I blame the fickleness of the primadonna VAs. Cosplayers - some good, some decent,
some just god awful, you decide:

Group doing characters from Miyazaki's films:

Mecha cosplayers and mecha related cosplayers... I see Fatimas...

Final Fantasy Cosplayers:

Cosplay ringers:

Gamers:

Maids, nurses, gothic lolies:

Random cosplay::

Sailor Moon, 15 year reunion picture...

Random crowd shots:

Random stuff:

And finally, today I found this guy; basically sitting there
pulling parts off the trees and building an MG Strike Freedom. Perfectly content
with snapping and explaining to passerbys that these things do not need any
glue or paint.... *sigh* He had no clue that there was a model building workshop,
had no clue that there was a model contest, he was just content in seeing the
exhibit hall and walking outside every now and again. I have a sinking feeling
that the majority of the folks walking out of the exhibit hall with bags upon
bags of gunpla are just like this guy.

Update Information:

July 1, 2007: Day three of Anime Expo, still one more day to go.... tired as all hell right now. More to write later, after the con is over...